Devices of the above type are generally known, and are discussed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,978,457. Reference is also made to U.S. Application Ser. No. 89,422 filed Oct. 30, 1979 for Alton Brooks Eckert and Edward Charles Duwell and entitled ELECTRONIC POSTAGE METER HAVING CHECK DATE WARNING, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,721, issued Aug. 11, 1981. This reference discloses a system for a postal meter including keyboard for the manual introduction of data corresponding to the postage to be printed.
Postal meters are generally provided with settable printing devices, including means for setting the date the postage is to be printed. It is frequently important to be able to show, with a reasonable degree of certainty, when an envelope was mailed. In the use of postal meters, however, the desired accuracy is not always achieved, since on occasion the operator forgets to set the daters of the printing device.
Electronic postal meters of known type, such as disclosed in the above U.S. patent, have provided warnings to indicate that the date should be checked whenever the meter is turned on. The mere warning, for example by the flashing of a light, however, is no assurance that the dater will in fact be checked or brought up to date, and hence in most meters the setting of the date was the responsibility of the operator.